The Finest Irony
by Nightshade Shrub
Summary: [NiouYagyuu or Niou&Yagyuu?] When everything is turned upside down, 'everything else' seems like the finest irony. [Rated T for language, but it's not that heavy.]


**Characters:**Niou & Yagyuu  
**Prompt:** fanfic50, Table 10, #01 - Rain  
**Rating:** T (for Niou and Yagyuu's language)  
**Summary:**When everything else is turned upside down, everything else seems like the finest irony.  
**Disclaimer:**I own nothing but this piece of writing.  
**Notes: **Heavy friendship. Almost, nonexistent slash, if you look hard enough. I tried to make it as Niou/Yagyuu as much as possible, but it came out like this. This is post-school; in short, they're grown-ups with jobs now. _Really _fluffy ending, because I suck. This hasn't been beta-ed - so there would be awful lot of mistakes - because... well, I suck ;)

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**The Finest Irony**

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It seems so ironic to Niou that in the middle of the stormy weather, where the rain is ridiculously heavy despite the fact that it _should _have been a starry evening, that Yagyuu suddenly appears in front of his doorstep, when the last time they saw each other was under the same stupid downpour years ago. Although Niou has been preparing himself for another encounter with the Gentleman, he didn't exactly expect the sight of his former doubles partner drenched in front of his apartment, soaking his front porch with the filthy rain that already flooded the streets. 

But he's there, all right, clutching his umbrella (which seems to have not been much of a use whatsoever) and his suitcase, both of which are currently dripping wet over Yagyuu's once polished leather shoes. He wears a long, black overcoat, a white polo shirt, and black pants that matches his work that, as Niou heard from Yukimura a while before, involves being a high-flying businessman of some private company. His brown hair is flat over his head, drops of water falling from the ends of his hair to his cheeks that is too pale and too frigid for Niou's liking. His eyes are still hidden behind the cold glasses that Niou first saw in their elementary school days, and his jaw is still too tightly clenched behind pursed lips.

"Yagyuu."

"Niou-kun."

Niou surveys him up and down and gave a thin smile; Yagyuu is still the perfect gentleman. It is perfect, indeed, because Niou is the infamous trickster, notwithstanding. Even with his job as a Mathematics Professor at some local university, he is still as eccentric and troublesome as he was before, if not less intimidating and more calculating. His hair was still white and messy, but he keeps it short and tidy enough to make the school board happy and indifferent of his childish hairstyle. His students aren't bothered by it, though; they actually like it, because it makes them think that their teacher is cool.

Niou _is_ cool; he just gives a massive amount of assignments and projects.

"It's been a while," says Niou silkily, his smile widening for a fraction as he sees Yagyuu nodding with the sort-of delicate smile of his own. He opens the door wider, and motions for Yagyuu to come in. "How did you know I live here? I haven't talked to you since…"

He trails off, but Yagyuu smiles nonchalantly, entering the threshold of Niou's property. "I saw it in Yanagi's phone book when I visited him once. I wrote it down so if ever I needed to contact you, or at least have the time to visit, then I'd know where to find you."

Niou nods, already expecting an answer like it; Yagyuu is still pretty much Yagyuu. "Wait in here; I'll get you some spare clothes. It'll do you no good if you stay there that long."

"I won't get sick," says Yagyuu, scowling. "I do believe that I have more of a better stamina than you do, Niou-kun."

"With all the time you spend sitting down, signing papers, and shit like that?" asks Niou amusedly as Yagyuu takes off his shoes and his sock, as per Niou's orders. "I don't think so. I have more free time than you do that I can still play tennis every week."

"Doesn't mean that I do not," replies Yagyuu, blunt and succinct.

Niou raises an eyebrow as he escorts Yagyuu to his living room, where a stack of all of his students' research papers, homeworks, and his own lesson plans are scattered mercilessly across a too-small table in the middle of the heated living room. The television is on, and Yagyuu sees a local crime-fighting show airing before a commercial of some "new" but useless device appears.

Niou disappears for a moment, leaving Yagyuu to look at and decipher Niou's and his students' handwriting upon the stack of papers abundantly placed everywhere. Frankly, Niou's handwriting hasn't changed. It's still messy and sloppy, but at least, he thinks, it's somehow legible now.

He chuckles silently at the sight of a big, crimson C upon a clean piece of paper sent by a student that Yagyuu regards has all the precise marks of a robot. His writing was neat, austere, and perfect, and should have been an easy S, had he been in any other class. However, Yagyuu still knows Niou well; Niou doesn't look for simplicity or perfection – he wants style, creativity, and a feeling that the person actually enjoyed what he did, one way or another.

As he searches through his clothes for what he sees to be the best fit for Yagyuu, Niou thinks about why Yagyuu has suddenly appeared in front of his house without notice. It isn't like Yagyuu not to call and make an appointment at all. Arriving without prior notice is Niou's doing (or in Yagyuu's words, _barging in without permission_) because Yagyuu did say once that is impolite and very ungentlemanly. Niou pulls himself out of his thoughts and a white shirt with khaki pants out of the closet.

"You should take a shower," said Niou, descending down the stairs and shoving the clothes to Yagyuu's chest. "I don't want to be responsible if you suddenly catch a cold."

Yagyuu goes to the nearest bathroom to wash and change, and Niou desperately looks for a place where he can stuff in some of his paperwork while he has Yagyuu for company. His apartment isn't very big, mainly because Niou is even too lazy to think about buying a new one despite the overwhelming amount of money now stuck in his bank account. Besides, he has grown attached to the house that he now calls home.

In the end, he places everything in the dining room table. He never eats there, unless he has Yukimura and Yanagi as visitors, or even Marui when he gets the chance (being the owner of one of the most outstanding restaurants in the whole of Japan is really bothersome, Marui said one day). There is really no sense in preparing the table when he only has one visitor to cater to, and one more appetite to satiate (Marui counts as three, knowing how much he consumes in_ half a day_). So he pulls out some leftover from this morning, reheats it, and puts it on the living room table, along with plates, chopsticks, and two bottles of sodas. He knows that Yagyuu won't mind it at all.

When Yagyuu stepped out, Niou glances over, and bites back a smirk. Yagyuu, without combing his hair, still has the flair for the switch. He looks very much like Yagyuu, if not for the fact that Niou has a mole on the right side of his chin, and Yagyuu's glasses blocks the sight of stunning, blue orbs – the same color as Niou's eyes. Yagyuu, noticing Niou's gaze, asks, "Is there anything wrong, Niou-kun?"

"We can still switch," he replies, his brilliant smirk and a mischievous glint in his eyes sending a million warning signals to Yagyuu's head. "Even if only for an hour or so, just to see if we still have that mutual understanding between us, and I think we still fucking do."

Yagyuu smiles, and sits down on the couch beside Niou, only a little farther up than necessary, much to Niou's mild bemusement. "Even if we still have that ability of copying each other's habits, it will be very difficult. We haven't seen each other for years; therefore, many things have been missed." His attention is taken away by the food, the smelling burning under his nose, as his stomach silently grumbles. If Niou still knows him as he claimed, then he should know that Yagyuu is as hungry as a boar.

"Hungry?" asks Niou, passing a plate to Yagyuu. Yagyuu flinches for a millisecond, before accepting and courteously thanking him. "I know I've told you enough times this day, but I don't want you to get sick. Not in my house, anyway. Besides, I don't want Miku-chan to get throwing shit at me for not taking care of you. Kami-sama knows that she can be as fucking scary as Yukimura if she needs to be."

Niou haven't talked to Sekiyama Miku in years as well, but he still remembers her, just in the same way he remembers Yagyuu. During high school, there was never a time that he did not see Miku talking with Yagyuu, nor had there been a moment were Miku had been ignored by Yagyuu. It was then that Niou realized that there was something special between the two, and backed away a little to give Yagyuu is personal space. Niou may be heartless to some, but he understood Yagyuu's needs, and he still does. College was the moment where he drifted away from Yagyuu. Although they still talked to each other during and after school hours, Yagyuu spent more and more time with Miku, and Niou was left alone caring for the baby seaweed head or guarding Marui from an extra baggage of sweets.

Years after that, he was invited to Yagyuu's wedding, as Yagyuu's best man. It seemed ironic to Niou, somehow, that Yagyuu asked him to be the best man, but nonetheless, he accepted, because he knew that, maybe, it was the last favor that he would be able to give Yagyuu. He seemed fine and _happy_with Miku, and of course, as a good friend, Niou had to let him go, as after that, Niou had to go overseas for his studies. It's been ten and a half-year since, and if a couple can suffer to be together that long, then maybe Yagyuu is _really_ satisfied with her.

However, the dark shade of blue that appeared in Yagyuu's eyes just moments ago makes Niou second guess. It is odd, really, that after ten years of drifting apart, Yagyuu comes back to him as though nothing happened, as though everything is like junior high once more, that just his arrival is enough to convey a greeting.

"I am calling it off," says Yagyuu stiffly, and Niou freezes halfway through splitting his wooden chopsticks apart. He turns to Yagyuu incredulously, but Yagyuu isn't staring back at him. He plays with his food, ignoring the unvoiced question in Niou's visage. "Things aren't… the same as they were before. I… We've decided to get a divorce."

Niou turns away, then. It is enough of irony as it is that Yagyuu came to him first before anyone else. But to think that Niou was thinking of Yagyuu's supposedly perfect life with Miku just moments ago, and then hearing Yagyuu contradict it with a stony voice that Niou has never heard before, it is just too serious to be a brush of fate. The rain outside seems louder than before; huge water droplets falling on the windows, with loud, clunking sounds hitting the freezing glass.

A thunder, a surge of heavier rainfall, and a blackout.

Niou blinks at the immediate darkness surrounding him. There is still light coming from the outside, but it isn't strong enough to light the path that Niou is looking through. The heater stops its motors, and Niou feels the cold wind brushing him, despite the closed door and windows from every corner of his house. He leans forward and tries to feel for the table, placing his plate on it when his hand makes contact with the sturdy wood. He feels Yagyuu shifting beside him, and he looks at him. He can't make out Yagyuu's figure in the darkness, but he can _see _his old friend. He can see the troubled eyes and the sad countenance, masked by a well-developed poker face that has never and _will never _fool Niou. Even in the blinding blankness, Niou can easily see that Yagyuu isn't the least bit comfortable now that his reason is out, even though, as Niou predicts, there are still some holes in Yagyuu's explanation.

"Stay here; I'll look for the candles," says Niou, stretching and feeling his surroundings as he shakily stood up to go to the dining room, where he is sure that all of his necessities are placed, in that stupid, rotten drawer under the sink. "Must around this stupid place."

"I don't mind the dark," says Yagyuu, "I actually prefer it. The light messes up my tan."

Niou doesn't know if he should be affronted, be amused, or just look plain dumb at the sound of Yagyuu attempting to convey his dry sense of humor (one that is even more appalling than Yanagi's, but that's another story). He decides to do the later, and even without the glow of light, he knows that Yagyuu can see him clearly, too, and the bespectacled man chuckled quietly.

"You don't fail to amuse me, Niou-kun," says Yagyuu teasingly.

Niou snorts, returning to his seat. The candles aren't important anymore; advising Yagyuu to get a more interesting comedic consultant is more of a necessity than the blaze of fire and the melting wax of a candlestick. "And you don't fail on horrifying me, Yagyuu, with what you fucking _dare_ to call a sense of humor. Did you get that from Jackal?"

"I haven't seen Jackal-kun since he moved back to Brazil," Yagyuu answers. "Although I have talked to him a few times, it is more on the subject of our work and personal lives than our actual progress as _human beings_."

"Ah… I see…"

"And Jackal-kun has a humor that could match Sanada-kun's…"

"That's true. But then again, '_Gen-chan_' is easily influenced by Yukimura these days. He's gained many pointers. Yanagi is getting quite jealous."

"Of course. He is still a man, in love with one of the prettiest boys he had ever met. It is quite easy to be tempted to snarl at everyone who dares to capture Yukimura-kun's attention. Jealousy's not something he could escape, even if he's Yanagi."

"That's true."

There is the inevitable silence that hung around them, the awkward pause of the storm. It is quite a challenge for them to be able to do what they wanted – no, needed – to do. Just the mere presence of the other conveys a nonsensical feeling of a throbbing heart and an expectant, waiting stare. Even in the midst of the darkness, Niou can see the flashing eyes; he knows that Yagyuu is waiting for him to do something. Because, since the beginning, it is always Niou to initiate things. If they were asked for a reason, Niou will only say that Yagyuu is a gentleman, and he doesn't like leading people and things. He prefers being the second voice rather than the first rant, because a gentleman always prioritize others before himself. Niou, on the other hand, is prepared to take any action head-on, anytime, anywhere. He can wait or begin at any practical moment that he wishes, and no one is going to say that it didn't suit him at all.

"Why?" he asks plainly. It is a simple question, and yet there can be many possible answers. However, Niou is only looking for one explanation, and it's up to Yagyuu if he wants to answer it or not.

Yagyuu shifts again, knowing fully what Niou is asking of him and feeling quite uncomfortable under Niou's innocent, questioning stare. Yagyuu isn't much of a talker, even after _years_, and being asked such a question that requires a full justification isn't really his kind of position. Niou can hear the sound of glasses being adjusted over the nose and the sound plate clinking on the table as Yagyuu puts it down. He has grown to be able to wait patiently if he wants answers to deliberately hard questions, and this is no difference.

"Because it wasn't worth it anymore," he answers stiffly, voice barely above a loud whisper. Niou tilts his head, contemplating if he should accept his answer. "We used to be able to go out during the weekends. We'd go to the park for a run, or we'd play tennis in Sanada-kun's tennis club. Every Sunday, we'd roam around the city to look for a restaurant and try it out. Sometimes, if she were feeling up to it, we'd go and train in Atobe-san's gym. Every Monday night, we'd go to the movies, and every Thursday morning, we'd go to her favorite café for a sip of coffee.

"But that was about it," he continues, and Niou makes himself comfortable on the couch as he listened to Yagyuu, his feet underneath his own weight. "There's been no thrill lately, no sense of excitement whenever we do those things. It felt like a routine and you as much as I do that I gave up living life in a perfect pattern a long time ago."

"I was the one who thought you that," says Niou proudly.

Yagyuu chuckles, though it sounds too bitter for Niou's liking. "Yeah, and I thank you for it. That had been the greatest lesson that I've learned my entire life, and I can't believe that I forgot about you and those words during those moments with her. I told myself that I wouldn't let anything – _anything_ – push me back to the way I was before. Here I am living a life of a _fucking _businessman who spends his mornings brushing his teeth for exactly three minutes, gets out of the house exactly thirty minutes before work, and finishes the job at exactly five minutes before his time is over and done! I've been _fucking_ stupid."

Niou blinks at the cuss words that rolled off Yagyuu's tongue, but bites his lip to prevent his cheeky side to surface; now isn't the time. Yagyuu must have been keeping all of this anger bottled up inside of him to have that much of complain in his life. However, he is wrong to think that Yagyuu is done; there is still a lot more that he wanted to say.

"She told me that she didn't love me anymore, too," he continues, and Niou's eyes widens, though he doesn't say anything. "It hurt the first time she said it, as if she had just punch a million holes throughout my whole body. To hear that the person you _planned _to spend your entire life with utter the most dreadful words was just painful." He chuckled again, and Niou sighed through his nose. "It took me a while, but I realized eventually that I don't love her anymore than she loves me. If I _did_ love her before, then I should say that the fire had died and there were no more factors that pump the exhilaration in our relationship. But then again, other people were more important to me than her, so I can't really say that I loved her at all."

There is twitch in the florescent light of Niou's abode and it pops in and out of light. However, the darkness claims superiority, and Niou doubts that the power company will be able to return the electricity back to normal for the next twenty-four hours. Niou sighs and looks outside; the streets are submerged under the rainwater and the trees that he thought to be quite sturdy are swaying about the wind, fighting the force that was attempting to break it down.

"You're not stupid in anyway, Yagyuu," says Niou somberly, and that is all that he can say, for now, knowing Yagyuu appreciates it all the same. Consoling the man that night isn't in his plan; he will wait for Yagyuu to cheer up again before trying to talk him out of his depression. Somehow, they both know that it was the best thing for Yagyuu at the moment.

"Niou-kun," he says softly, and Niou turns to him with raised eyebrows. "Is it alright if I stay for the night?"

Niou smiles for the first time that night, despite the heavy rain that flung open his living room window. Yagyuu should know better than to ask that question, for he is Niou's best friend, and Niou doesn't let anything happen to his best friend. He has been there for Yagyuu on the moments where he was most needed, and tonight, the occasion calls for his help once again. Yagyuu is a good friend, and it will be a shame if Niou ruins the moment. Not that he would, but still, it's fun to do the what-ifs once in a while.

"You can stay here for as long as you need, Yagyuu."

"Thank you."

Ironic to the feelings that Niou somehow feels in his insides, the city outside is pretty much too melancholic at the loss of light. However, to Niou, it's the finest irony, because he has never seen a place much brighter than where he is right now, provided that he's not dreaming of that moment.

He pinches Yagyuu just to make sure.

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**Notes:** _Niou/Yagyuu_ **or** _Niou&Yagyuu?_ Feedback would be very much appreciated :D Oh, and please tell me the mistakes I've made. Ciao! 


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